Man’s spirit

It is quite apparent to the seeing mind that a man’s spirit is something very different from his physical body. The spirit is changeless, indestructible. The progress and development of the soul, the joy and sorrow of the soul, are independent of the physical body.
If we are caused joy or pain by a friend, if a love prove true or false, it is the soul that is affected. If our dear ones are far from us—it is the soul that grieves, and the grief or trouble of the soul may react on the body.
Thus, when the spirit is fed with holy virtues, then is the body joyous; if the soul falls into sin, the body is in torment!
When we find truth, constancy, fidelity, and love, we are happy; but if we meet with lying, faithlessness, and deceit, we are miserable....

`Abdu'l-Bahá: Paris Talks

BISHÁRÁT (Glad-Tidings)

O people of the earth!

The first Glad-Tidings which the Mother Book hath, in this Most Great Revelation, imparted unto all the peoples of the world is that the law of holy war hath been blotted out from the Book.
Glorified be the All-Merciful, the Lord of grace abounding, through Whom the door of heavenly bounty hath been flung open in the face of all that are in heaven and on earth.

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, BISHÁRÁT (Glad-Tidings)

MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

... for it is only his body that can receive material benefits. If a man is successful in his business, art, or profession he is thereby enabled to increase his physical wellbeing and to give his body the amount of ease and comfort in which it delights. All around us today we see how man surrounds himself with every modern convenience and luxury, and denies nothing to the physical and material side of his nature. But, take heed, lest in thinking too earnestly of the things of the body you forget the things of the soul: for material advantages  do not elevate the spirit of a man. Perfection in worldly things is a joy to the body of a man but in no wise does it glorify his soul.
It may be that a man who has every material benefit, and who lives surrounded by all the greatest comfort modern civilization can give him, is denied the all important gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is indeed a good and praiseworthy thing to progress materially, but in so doing, let us not neglect the more important spiritual progress, and close our eyes to the Divine light shining in our midst.

`Abdu'l-Bahá: Paris Talks

In man there are two natures

In man there are two natures; his spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world alone. Signs of both these natures are to be found in men. In his material aspect he expresses untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower nature.

The attributes of his Divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions of his higher nature. Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man’s spiritual nature, whereas all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature. If a man’s Divine nature dominates his human nature, we have a saint.
Man has the power both to do good and to do evil; if his power for good predominates and his inclinations to do wrong are conquered, then man in truth may be called a saint. But if, on the contrary, he rejects the things of God and allows his evil passions to conquer him, then he is no better than a mere animal.



Abdu'l-Bahá: Paris Talks P.61

یک جان و این همه آلام و محن و یک سینه پروفا و این همه تیر جفا

بیان مبارک حضرت عبدالبهاء ...
سبحان الله یک جان و این همه آلام ومحن ویک سینه پر وفا واین همه تیر جفا یک حنجر و صد هزار خنجر محزون مباش مغموم مگرد مآیوس مشو این بلا در سبیل خدا عنوان موهبت کبری است و این زحمت ومشقت مبادی رحمت و بشائر عنایتست باید به شکرانیت تلقی نمود وبحمد وستایش برخاست ومناجات نمود که
 پاک یزدانا چنین موهبتی شایان فرمودی و چنین رحمتی ارزان کردی زیرا این جام لبریز چنان لذیذ است که مخصوص یاران عزیز فرمودی نه هر بی عقل و تمیز واین حظ موفور را مختص هر سید حصور نمودی نه هر غافل مغرور هر جانی لایق فدای آن یار مهربان نه وهرسری سزاوار نثار پای جانان نه.این عبد به شکرانه خداوند یگانه پرداخت که ترا باین موهبت سرافراز کرد وچنین اکلیل جلیلی بر سر نهاد که بر سریر اثیر مستریح خواهی گشت.ایام بگذرد و جمیع بساطها پیچیده گردد وهر بنیانی ویران شود وهر درختی سایه دار از بیخ برافتد زحمتها فراموش شود ومشقتها از خاطر برود و نور موهبت جلوه نماید وربح تجارت آشکار گردد.پس ای یار وفادار غم مخورغمخوار توعبدالبهاست محزون مشو ممنون گرد دلخون منشین خوشنود باش که خطاب الست را بلی گفتی ومورد چنین ابتلا گشتی.عنقریب نور حقیقت بتابدواین ظلمت طغیان اهل جفا زائل گردد وبلبل الهی در گلشن رحمانی گلبانگ پرمژده بسراید.جمیع طائفین حول را از قریب و خلیل وحبیب تحیت مشتاقانه عبدالبهاء برسان آنان نیز از صهبای جفا در راه وفا جام سرشاری نوشیدند هنیئا مریئا هر باهوش را نوش باد وهر ثابت نابت را بشارت هاتف و سروش باد و علیک التحیه و الثناء.
 منتخباتی از مکاتیب حضرت عبدالبهاء ج 3صص 162 ...

Difference of opinion

When you meet those whose opinions differ from your own, do not turn away your face from them.
All are seeking truth, and there are many roads leading thereto. Truth has many aspects, but it remains always and forever one.
Do not allow difference of opinion, or diversity of thought to separate you from your fellow-men, or to be the cause of dispute, hatred and strife in your hearts. Rather, search diligently for the truth and make all men your friends.
Every edifice is made of many different stones, yet each depends on the other to such an extent that if one were displaced the whole building would suffer; if one is faulty the structure is imperfect.
Bahá’u’lláh has drawn the circle of unity, He has made a design for the uniting of all the peoples, and for the gathering of them all under the shelter of the tent of universal unity. This is the work of the Divine Bounty.

`Abdu'l-Bahá: Paris Talks

BEAUTY AND HARMONY IN DIVERSITY

The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness.
Think of them as different coloured roses growing in the beautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.

`Abdu'l-Bahá: Paris Talks P.54

The world is, moving on towards its destiny.

The world is, in truth, moving on towards its destiny. The interdependence of the peoples and nations of the earth, whatever the leaders of the divisive forces of the world may say or do, is already an accomplished fact.
Its unity in the economic sphere is now understood and recognized.
The welfare of the part means the welfare of the whole, and the distress of the part brings distress to the whole. The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh has, in His own words, “lent a fresh impulse and set a new direction” to this vast process now operating in the world. The fires lit by this great ordeal are the consequences of men’s failure to recognize it. They are, moreover, hastening its consummation.
Adversity, prolonged, worldwide, afflictive, allied to chaos and universal destruction, must needs convulse the nations, stir the conscience of the world, disillusion the masses, precipitate a radical change in the very conception of society, and coalesce ultimately the disjointed, the bleeding limbs of mankind into one body, single, organically united, and indivisible.

Shoghi Effendi: The Promised Day Is Come

the concept of world citizenship

...The love of one’s country, instilled and stressed by the teaching of Islám, as “an element of the Faith of God,” has not, through this declaration, this clarion-call of Bahá’u’lláh, been either condemned or disparaged...
 All it does imply and proclaim is the insufficiency of patriotism, in view of the fundamental changes effected in the economic life of society and the interdependence of the nations, and as the consequence of the contraction of the world, through the revolution in the means of transportation and communication—conditions that did not and could not exist either in the days of Jesus Christ or of Muḥammad.
It calls for a wider loyalty, which should not, and indeed does not, conflict with lesser loyalties.
It instills a love which, in view of its scope, must include and not exclude the love of one’s own country.
It lays, through this loyalty which it inspires, and this love which it infuses, the only foundation on which the concept of world citizenship can thrive, and the structure of world unification can rest. ...

Shoghi Effendi: The Promised Day Is Come

Divine Physicians

The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. No man, however acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained. Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they appeared.


Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh P 81.